near sandy but eeriely similar in track. cloudy and breezy with a wintry mix. we've got an update on the breaking news we've been following all day. a major water main break. >> roosevelt leftwich and joce sterman are live on the scene. >> reporter: the din are rushings the rush local and they are starting to get a look at this water main break on charles street. >> it has been moving through the neighborhood for many years. water gushing, millions and millions of gals rushing -- gallons rushing at 20th and charles. a 60 earn main. wart was rolling down charles street like a river. a lot of people were saying that because they had never seen

anything like that. four blocks have been bothers by this. right here, the water did stop at charles theater. there was some thought it may go on to the amtrak train. that didn't happen as the raw sewage was able to come. the bus routes have been affected. pedestrian routes have been affected. were us right now is the department of public works. whether's the latest. where do we stand? >> we're working closely with bge to make sure we can address concerns that they have to protect the gas lines. you won't see real activity other than shutting the water down. so it's in the like the that in your home where you can turn the water off but you have to go pretty far away, especially with a main this far. >> with the -- with a process like this, you envision it will

take weeks. >> i'm not going to put a time on it right now. it's another good example of our aging infrastructure. the mayor is very active with national governors in terms of being a lead are, pushing for infrastructure. stepping up the -- a pro active fashion. going from well under five miles now. that will be stepping up over a period of the next five years to where we will be doing 40 miles of main replacement a year. that's something that's really overdue. this line was put in in early 1920. this is 90 years in the ground. you can imagine the condition. >> thanks for talking to us. they have a lot of work to do. it will be incredibly costly. we want to talk about that as

well. from the towing services they needed to get the cars out of the way to the people who were working at that command post, all of that cost the city money. a break like this is incredibly expensive. it's part of a long range plan that will take decades. as he said step one is this building up point so they clan get to a point where they can repair 40 miles of piper year. this comes -- the question is who pays. the question is sadly it's you. >> it comes through the city, the water rates. the citizens pay for it. >> reporter: so in a situation like this, the city gets a bond and gets paid back through water rate hikes, $300 million.

we just heard from bge a few moments ago. the impact as far as eel truck and gas is very localized. we're talking about a dozen people or less. so not having a widespread impact given there are many high rises. >> with the temperatures and not having gas, it makes a bad situation even worse. for a lot of people there were scary moments. the way the water was coming in, some of the folks had to be evacuated for a while. luckily they're back in but it did cause tense moments. don harrison was here when all this was going down. >> reporter: he is referring to the order though evacuate. his alpha christian outreach ministries calls this building on charles street home. >> his church served 36,000 people over the past years.

you can imagine when the water main break turned charles street into rapids -- >> it's a sad thing. >> reporter: charles parish owns the building. >> it's devastating for our families and the tenants. >> reporter: with a water main break this large it's not just the businesses and residents affected. a lady along with her hamsters had to leave the apartment. >> kind of freaking out. >> reporter: but everything is going to be okay for people living here. the city inspectors examined the building and said it's safe for now. baltimore, don harrison, abc2 news. >> this is a massive water main break. it's shutting down a big clunk of charles street. let's see how it will affect the commute tomorrow.

>> it will not be fixed for quite some time. it's massive. it's 20 inches all together and that size could dpre as the repairs are underway. it's on north charles between north avenue and 20th. you will want to avoid the barkley area. this will be an lounge shall you as the repairs are fixed. stick with calvert or 83. this is what 95 looks like downtown. everything is moving along on 39345. now 695, the top side will be packed. here's with it looks like in parkville. this will take you 22 extra minutes to travel the inner loop from 83 to 95. this will be congested as you travel that outer loop from 795 to route 40. we have a wind warning in effect. the crash has cleared from the

eastbound lanes at baydale drive. over to you. >> all right. as crews work to fix that water main break look what's coming down center street -- a storm. >> it may not be superstorm sandy, but it may cause more trouble for the east coast. mike masco has more. what are we looking at, mike? >> we're looking at a whole lot of weather north of us. it's cold. we're running somewhere around 20 degrees below average. it will continue through the overnight. it will get really cold. we do think it's going to be pretty cold across the area. you want to talk about snow? it's snowing to the north, to the east. let's go out toward connecticut. it is coming down. i think it will close easily on eight inches of snow. it will be a historic one.

the snow has been falling from philadelphia, atlantic city airport. if you have a flight out of those two points, forget about it. in terms of what's going on here, it's cold. at times a little bit of a breeze. a few of our facebook friends have been saying it's flurries from time to time but we're not expect heavy ?oal -- snowfall accumulations. cecil county, harford county and the northern eastern shore you could be dealing with a coating. it's cold. wyatt will talk about that coming up. maryland's most accurate weather team will continue to track the storm as it moves in. for the latest forecast, head to abc2news.com and click on the weather tab. let's go to odenton. we had a fire. there people are sleeping under

a new roof after 12 apartments were severely damaged. it happened in the seven oaks community. soon after fightersen terred for a -- firefighters entered for a rescue, the situation went from bad to worse. >> it deteriorated rapidly. in all, it took 60 firefighters about 33 minutes they bring it under -- 30 minutes to bring it under control. >> the red cross has been called in to help those affected. we were there with you last night when the results came in. president obama will serve a second term in office. >> democrats remain in control of the senate and republicans in

the house. the senate will have the largest number of female members in its history. right here in maryland we saw voters heading to the polls in droves. many people were drawn by all the questions. question four the dream act. question six same-sex marriage and question seven on expanded blsmght the mayor said she felt confident except for one pooh honestly, i felt very good about the president's chances about question six. because of all the machine nip spent, i did not have confidence that question seven would carry. >> they approved measures on sus spptions of elected officials. we're continuing to track the massive water main break and how it could affect your morning

commute and superstorm sandy dumped more than a foot of snow on gather rete county. foontd out what wrergt conditions are on the way. >> 44 pat bwi. 16 degrees below our normal of 60. no two ding winner ---degree winner today. will it have anyor tricks up its sleeves? we answer coming up.

seems like they just finished dig out the snow from where superstorm sandy dumped on dare rete county. >> and the maryland food bank distributed 34,000 pounds of food to the people in the county and sandy became a blizzard

leaving thousands downtown heat and electricity. the next storm should not be pass bad as sandy, but what kind of conditions will it bring? let's check in with meteorologist wyatt everhart. all right. let's be clear. 33ers plus of wet snow. people without power. thank goodness we will not be facing that. it's putting in the wintry precip, very light wintry showers. most of the action has been north and east through delaware and southern new jersey. this has gemmily stayed out -- gem -- generally stayed out to sea. a lot of cold air but the highest winds have stayed along

the coast along with the bulk of the wintry weather and back up through south central new jersey. that's sort of been the jackpot for snow. still enough winter light shower activity to bring slick spots. havre de grace, you've had a few showers on and off as well. it's from this hear north up i-95 as you go toward elkton, cecil ton, wilmington, delaware and beyond. that's where you'll find the slickest conditions. let's not forget about the beaches and delaware maryland beaches and there they're getting the big waves and enhanced tide action, all courtesy of this nor'easter. so safely above freezing. any wintry showers will melt quickly. coastal flood advisories, wind warnings up for new jersey, delaware and the virginia coast.

a little bit of enhanced tide action thanks to that nor'easter. wind gusts along the coast. 25 at beach, gustier than normal. temperature wise, that wind chill has been ever present along del mar va are a watching us from denton, through talbot county, easton or toward chester town. these areas are feeling the wind chill. big storm continuing to churn offshore. impressive size, broad circulation. you can see it wrapping around the new england states, but the snow bands and the coldest side of the storm but the main precip wrapping north of maryland, connecticut, new england, you got. it cold weather will continue to wrap in for us. close to freezing in the morning. watch out for slick spots,

especially north and east. 32, mixed showers mainly from northeastern maryland. tomorrow 50 or so. 33 tomorrow night as we stay dry and chilly. the next couple of days we'll begin to chill out and warm things up. saturday 60. into your sunday 65. could we flirt with 70 into veteran's damon day. it's possible. that would be a nice treat, so get through tonight and things will improve. >> we deserve it. >> keep fleeterring, wink at monday. let's continue our coverage of the water main break on north charles street. roosevelt leftwich and joce sterman covering it. i know we've been waiting on bge to finally shut things down.

>> we're still in a holding pattern. city crews are getting ready do something. at this point, everybody, including bge, they just want to make sure they will be isolated or not cause problems as the city gets ready. >> they've been able to contain certain things. they were able to shut it off, shut off electric service to few. the impact has been confusion in this area where people are triering to get around. it's caused a little bit of havoc. as you can see, it's still happening. >> we're talking about a pretty good area all the way to penn station where you get on 83. buses aren't running. so those routes have to be

rerouted. people are trying to get around here and then tomorrow morning -- >> ded w said they have no timeline on it. we will be dealing with this for quite awhile. back to you. >> as i mentioned, with the mess there, with the windy, rainy weather, could be a problem. >> let's find out. here's abc2 news. >> this is so massive. now you will want to avoid north charles street. many will be flooded and damaged don't to this. your best alternate routes will be calvert street or 83. if you're traveling through the tunnels, we are dealing with a crash on the beltway. as we take a look north of the

scene at baltimore national pike it's going to be slow. the congestion will continue down to parkville. if you're heading down to 83, here's a life -- live look. no delays. be extra careful. that's a lack at your abc2 time saver traffic. back over to you. >> and to stay up to date on the weather main breaks, just head to abc2news.com. you can see all of our live traffic cameras and the map by clicking on the traffic tab. >> here's a good way for a principal to win over students. how about kissing a pig? the assistant principal kissed the pig twice. it was a reward for the students' efforts. they worked hard to raise money for the school and pta.

they raised over $12,000 and they were rewarded with the principal kissing the pig. coming up tonight after world knew, stay here for an all new episode of the list, especially if are a interested in shiny things. >> shiny happy people are holding hands. that's coming up next. >> here's what's coming up tonight on abc2

here's a look at what we're work on at 11. >> a hurricane, a fishings a tornado a gas leak. is your family pre-- prepared for a real emergency. >> plus, get latest on that huge water main break in the city and more on how to get around it. those stories and more when we see you tonight at 11. >> hope dpli that water won't -- hopefully that water won't freeze. >> it will be a chilly night. >> we have the chance for a few wintry showers. you will awant to drive with caution. a little bit of winter weather could mix in with showers. daybreak could be close to

freezing. then we warm up. >> hurry up 50s.